Emerging Vistas for the Library and Information Services in the Digital Era

1. Emerging Vistas for the Library and Information Services in the Digital Era Vivek Patkar vnpatkar2004@yahoo.co.in Puducherry, December 9-11, 2014

2. Inside the library • Outside the library • Technical training • Global using ICT Delivery LIS SERVICE Purpose Urgency • Academic • Research • Business • General • One hour • One day • One week • More time

3. Network Society • A modern society with social and media infrastructure of networks that characterise its mode of organisation at all levels namely, individual, group and societal. • These networks link almost every unit or part of the society independent of time and location. J. V. Dijk, The Network Society, London, Sage Publications, 2012, 3rd edition.

4. Seven ‘Laws’ of Web (B. Huberman, The Laws of the Web, Patterns in the Ecology of Information, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press, 2001) • The Law of Network Articulation: In the network society, the social relations are gaining influence as compared to the social units they are linking. • The Law of External Externality: Networks have effects on things or people external to the network. There is a pressure to connect as more people join the network.

5. The Law of Network Extension: When networks such as Web grow, they tend to become too big for any individual to connect. Intermediaries like search engines, portals and social networking sites are thus necessary. • The Law of Small Worlds: In large-scale networks, most units are not neighbours, but can still reach almost every unit in a few steps (six degree of separation) creating a small world. Clustering of units is the key. [Watts, D.J. & Strogatz, S.H. “Collective Dynamics of ‘small-world’ Networks”, Nature, 393, 1998, p.440.]

6. The Law of the Limit to Attention: Since everyone, in principle can connect and communicate with everyone, there is a limit to attention because time to read, view or listen is limited. More the content producers, the smaller is their audience in general.[1% write, 9% comment and 90% consume] • The Power Law in Networks: In large scale-free networks those units already richer in links acquire even more. • The Law of Trend Amplification: Networks are relational structures that tend to reinforce existing social trends.

7. Teen Development Tasks Use of new social media to, • Develop a sense of self or identity • Learn to form, maintain and terminate close relationship with others • Develop and mature psychologically through experimentation • Hone self-presentation skill • Make balanced self-disclosure Use these pointers for designing new LIS services

8. Service Expectations • “Always-on” functionalities • Delivery on personal digital devices • Getting precise information in compact form to avoid information overload • Receiving the practice-oriented resources that would guide effective multi-tasking Services Implications: rethinking, restructuring and rejuvenating constantly

9. Innovative LIS Approach: Development of partnerships, collaborations and shared services is the key to remain relevant in the digital era

10. New LIS Services Facilitate extending: • School library • Learning in general • Academic library • Research library • Corporate library • Public library

11. International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) • The mission of the ICDL Foundation is to excite and inspire the world's children to become members of the global community • Make children understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

14. ICDL Based Activities • Read for Pleasure: search books using simple search or the advanced search or location search and read for free • Digital Story Time: displaying and reading book from the ICDL pages to the children using projector for enlarging the display if possible • Scavenger Hunt: pull out some particular terms from the stories and then ask the children to try and find the books based on those terms or ask more basic questions such as how many books there are in the ICDL from different countries etc. • Learning Languages: many of the books in the ICDL are available in more than one language. These books can help to study a new language by reading in both the known & new language • Translation: aim is to translate every book in 100 languages and everybody is welcome to contribute in this regard • Teacher Training: to explain how the ICDL might be used by teachers in their classroom for enriching the knowledge of children, a Manual is available for this purpose

15. Connected Learning (CL) CL supports constructivism in education as: • CL is socially rooted, interest-driven, and oriented towards educational, economic or political opportunity • CL is realized when a person is able to: - pursue a personal interest or passion with the support of friends and caring experts, and • - link this learning to academic and career success or civic engagement

16. Types of Learning Three modes of learning: • Theenactivemode fits learning by direct action (like dancing) • Theiconicmode fits learning by the observation of visual models (like simulation) • Thesymbolicmode fits learning by symbol systems (like language) The library can support them by redesigning its space and services

17. 3D Printing Service Using special printers to build a 3D physical object from its digital model from malleable raw material: plastic, clay, cheese, chocolate or rubber.

18. 3D Printing Service • Teaching, research and vocational training would be immensely facilitated by such a library service • Policies for such a library service like pricing, job scheduling and output quality are to be framed

19. Digital Reference Service • It is formed by answers given to queries in a computer-mediated environment • It involves building profilefor material by analysing question-answer transactions • The profile can serve as metadata of a document • Material consulted could be bookmarked for future use, while the answers can become annotations to that material

20. Consolidated Services • A government, research or public library can plan services consolidating information readily available in the government and public sector domain • In-house library service to support addressing the RTI queries would be valued mostly by the government offices • A new priced reference service can be planned on these lines by public libraries to serve NGOs and researchers

21. Corporate Library Services Analysis of the “Big” data using the advanced ICT tools can help in: • unlocking significant value by making information transparent and usable • offering custom-made solution • improving decision-making • innovating products and services design of the parent organisation

22. Information Preference Commercial firms value the information services in the followingpriority: • Records Management: current information manipulation [operational purpose] • Knowledge Management: information processed to support decision-making [policy formulation] • Archives Management:storing and retrieving historic information as per the need [for legal matters] • Library Management:documentary support provision [standards, patents, best practices]

23. Social Media Literacy Service Training topics: • When to give focused attention and engage in multi-tasking • Evaluation of trustworthiness of the material • Advising about the logic of the major online information services providers (their priority system, search utilities and privacy policies) • When and how to participate in a discussion • How to collaborate profitably Laurie M. Bridges, “Librarian as Professor of Social Media Literacy,” Journal of Library Innovation 3, no.1 (2012): 48.

24. Managing Online Personal Digital Assets • Online personal digital assets like blogs, e-mails, and photos can be across different platforms of the social media • They could be considered as the footprints of the owner & worth preserving as digital heritage • Privacy issues related to their transfer will pose legal questions • Library service informing patrons about developments in this context is welcome

25. Economical Progression Experiences Experience Economy Stage Services Services Economy Deliver Goods Industrial Economy Make Commodities Agrarian Economy Extract

26. Absorption entertainment (by sensing) education (by learning) Passive Participation Active Participation esthetic (by cherishing) escapism (by doing) Immersion Joseph B. Pine II and James H. Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy,” Harvard Business Review 76, no.4 (July-August, 1998): 97.

27. New Service Feature Delivery of information combined with lifelike interactive experiences is seen as the emerging need in the digital era Today’s search evolves to include taste, smell, texture, density, tone, speed… New search and delivery technology Increase the Experience Value Opportunity (EVO)

28. Library Use of Social Media Social media platforms are mostly free and no programming is needed so that, the library can increase its outreach by • Highlighting the in-depth services • Processing & sharing the resources • Communicating valued information • Providing support without exception • Customising the services

29. Generativity of Services • Generativity denotes a capacity to produce unprompted change driven by large uncoordinated audiences. • Openness is its key as exemplified by Wikipedia. • Such services solicit participation from the public at large, and that is achieved by means the public can master easily. Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet (Yale: Yale University Press, 2008).

30. Procrastination Principle • It means instead of waiting to perfect the service, launch it and allow large-scale experimentation. • The service may be incomplete and users may be allowed to shape it in many directions. • Sort out the noxious developments later, rather than trying to prevent them from the outset and delay service launching. The best is the enemy of the good

31. New LIS Professional Likely Profile: • Reputation Manager (a conceptual and contextual understanding of content) • Sentiment Analyst (use of computer and data mining techniques to infer meaning from digital texts) • Ninja Librarian (Ninja librarians find you the information you need before you even ask for it) • Digital Information Services Consultant • Information Experience Facilitator Thinking out of the LIS box and experimenting is the key

32. Recommendations LIS Education and Training: • Auditing to ascertain the information needs; how it is used and reused • Skills necessary to handle “Big” data • Deep knowledge of classification and indexing for managing the mounting volume of records and information • Use of content analysis and text & web mining • Monitoring social media to track any given issue Use case study method and project assignments

33. Recommendations (2) Research: • On digital library services evaluation to assess the return on investment • On designing new strategies to remain relevant in the changing ICT scene • On organising unstructured information like e-mails and chats and integrating it with other structured data for analysis • To determine strategies for settling the claims of online personal digital assets

34. Recommendations (3) Actions: • To increase social media presence using suitable strategies • To impart training in the social media literacy and enlightening users about digital resources quality assessment • To design and delivery library services matching the new experience economy-based expectations of the users • To develop and present the library as an information innovation organisation Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic 301, no.6 (June 2008): 56.

35. Coda The ICT should be treated only as means for reinforcing the service commitment, which has been the core and hallmark of the LIS institutions. ThankYou